Return of the Feisty Girl

Being back in the Children's Oakland PICU has brought back many memories for Chris and me.  It is the place we watched our baby fight for her life for nearly three weeks, where we watched her have seizures, and where we started to regain some hope that she might survive.  At just two months old, sShe was just beginning to acknowledge the outside world with little smiles or gentle touches.  After surgery, we didn't know what to expect, when we would see "her" come back.  It took a few days, but eventually, her leg, the only extremity not tied down by IVs, started to reach out toward our touch.  It was a sign to us hat she was coming back to us.  As the weeks passed, she regained more and more of her feisty attitude came through, reassuring us that she was doing well despite the trauma.

Last night, the feisty girl made her way through yet again.  Her eyes are swollen shut, black and blue, and her face is completely round.  Her fingers, hands, arms and legs are swollen.  She had three IVs in both hands and a leg.  But she made sure we knew she was there.  Around dinner time, she started to kick her blankets off.  She grabbed the nurses' stethoscopes as they tried to listen to her breath.  While Chris was with her in the ICU last night, she somehow managed to "break" all three IVs.  They tried repeatedly to get a new IV in, but no one could - not the PICU nurses, not the NICU nurse, not the neurosurgeon, who finally decided to go IV-free and just give all her medications by g-tube.

Once I got in this morning, she tried to wiggle her way toward my voice, completely dislodging all the pillows and tubes around her.  She has pulled her bandage "hat" off a few times, and snarls a little kitten roar every time anyone moves her pacifier.  The feisty girl is on her way back!

The incredible swelling has begun to fade, and she is starting to look a little more familiar.  With her hands free, she has been rubbing her eyes all morning, trying to figure out why she can't see - frustrating for her, but I think all the stimulation has really helped the swelling go down. She is tolerating all the necessary medications in her stomach, along with her regular formula.  As soon as the doctors feel her swelling is down enough, she will be moved out of the PICU and to the recovery floor.